McAdams
by you-neek
Summary: When a simple stake-out isn't enough to catch the latest two-bit criminal dogging the boarding school just outside of town, who gets the brilliant idea to go undercover?
1. Chapter 1

**Okay so I am ridiculously excited for the unveiling of my new and improved only multi-chapter story. So excited in fact that I have decided to post it early. Originally i vowed not to post another story unless i was almost done writing it because of the sad, sad pace that i put up chapters for the last version. I guess i'm sticking to that plan just like i'm sticking to the plan to capitalize all my I's. Yeah... great job.**

**Anyways i'm putting this out there as a sort of preview. Just because i'm impressed at the speed at which i'm continueing to write doesn't mean i'll be done anytime soon. I had to butcher every word i had written down those years ago because i'm not fifteen anymore and i have improved somewhat.**

**Okay, here goes. McAdams take two:**

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><p>Robin stared at the array of breakfast foods infront of him.<p>

Toast, soft fruit, pre-cooked bacon, runny imitation eggs.

McAdams 'boarding school for lost souls' was clearly not known for it's fine cuisine. In fact McAdams isn't known for it's finely furnished dorms, or its' grassy rolling lawns, wide selection of subjects or the superior education system. To be perfectly blunt McAdams wasn't known for anything, at anytime, before this past year. Before it started suffering increasingly violent (increasingly public) attacks on its' students from one nefarious individual.

The tabloids call him 'the Professor'. Not only are they without imagination but what's worse is that the paparazzi has covered every moment of him evading capture by any normal means. Naturally the Teen Titans were contacted, despite the school being just outside the city limits. It was just supposed to be a stake-out mission; a couple nights of sandwiches and bottled water, camped out in the water-damaged room on the top floor of the main building. Robin and Cyborg had set up their own camera systems on every floor and surrounding the campus, Beast Boy prowled the area as a dog (having rolled in a generous amount of dirt to look brown), Raven meditated deeply in search of spikes in emotion and Starfire, unable to search the skies in case she was spotted, manned the sandwich making station.

They kept at it for over a week.

After a week of staring at the same fuzzy black and white tv screens, sitting in the same uncomfortable plastic mold chairs, things got pretty old pretty fast.

It was Starfire who had the idea to go undercover. She had been trying on some of the uniforms the school stored in boxes pushed against the back of the class and thinking about the old nineties movies that always played on the movie channel back home. It had taken five hours for the idea to finally take, and another two days for them to plan it out. But when Monday rolled around they had a full set of undercover identities, school uniforms and specially designed tech made to look like ordinary objects should they be picked up by anyone else.

The identity setup had been quick and sloppy. It shouldn't be a problem, they were only in the school as long as it took to track down and catch the Professor, and the Dean was in on it anyways if anyone went up the chain with it. But picking names had been slightly ... difficult.

Starfire and Raven, being relatively new to Earth and all, had to start from scratch. Starfire had humanized her native name into Kori Anders. Raven had done a similar job ... mostly. Her first name became Rachel and she picked Roth after her mother, Arellas', last name.

Cyborg spent most of his time helping the others because he already had an alias set up and ready. He was set to become 'Victor Stone' the moment he put on a uniform.

Now it wasn't that Robin didn't trust his team-mates - because he did, with his life - even if he hasn't disclosed his real name after all this time - but he knew enough not to trust any student, teacher or groundskeeper at the school with even a shred of something they could use to get to him. He encouraged Beast Boy, being the only other unprepared human on the team, to do the same and together they became Robin Drayling and Bernard Logan.

And so the disguise was complete. They were one car-ride away from being teens or being Titans.

But just because they were prepared didn't mean they were ready.

Take the morning menu for example; just because it was suppose to be edible (and somewhere in the vicinity of _nutritious _) didn't mean that it was... at all. Robin tossed his tray back on to the cart and grabbed the least bruised looking apple from a bowl almost obscured by a tower of butter packets. The students were another obstacle they hadn't prepared for. He juggled his apple from hand to hand, weaving through students and a sea of chairs to get to the dim back corner the rest of the team was in. If he didn't know any better, and he wasn't quite sure he did, he could swear he was getting dirty looks just for _existing_. He kept telling himself that their identities were airtight, legally they were nothing but ordinary students, but that didn't stop his paranoia, or their suspicion.

"Please tell me we're being attacked already."

"Try and sound a little less like you'd rather be dying Rachel." Robin peeled the sticker off his apple and flicked it behind him.

**"Who said anything about dying," she muttered, "I'd rather be back in hell." Raven pointedly ignored Robins scolding look and instead flicked her new bangs into a more manageable position. They had had to get creative when masking who they really were. Not everyone had a jewel in the middle of their forehead, or naturally purple hair, so Raven gone into the bathroom with a pair of sewing scissors and a box of hair dye three days prior. The dye had been only slightly difficult. The hair cut considerably more so.**

Cyborg and Beast Boy had been less challenging. The former still had his holographic ring set from his own undercover work at H.I.V.E. so he simply duplicated the technology into another set for his team-mate. They had thought about using massive amounts of spray-tan to cover his green skin but it slicked off as soon as he brushed against anything. Starfire had the opposite problem, but once they agreed to shrug off her skin colour as enthusiastic tanning all she had to do was pencil in the rest of her eyebrows.

Cyborg, whose appetite had not been impeded by the quality of the cafeteria food, twisted his rings and looked out over the crowd. "Hey Rob? How many times do i have to go undercover as a student before I officially look too old?"

"Well if you keep telling everyone we're undercover, _never again_." Robin twisted the stem off his apple and breathed deeply. "Okay, we all pretty much have different classes. I say we meet tonight after we eat and we'll figure out if we're going to patrol or not."

Beast Boy spoke up from behind his meager pile of vegetarian foods. "Couldn't you have told us that at dinner?"

The bell rang just as Robin pinched the bridge of his nose and his response was lost on an empty table.

"Ugh... titans go."

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><p><strong>okay! so i realize this may not be as exciting as you may have hoped but i'm doing my best. I've always wanted to get this story up (AND DONE, god dam) so i've got a lot of writing in my future. The awsome thing is that i'm really into it now that i got this BRAND NEW ASUS NETBOOK. . it was my birthday almost one week ago today and i absolutely love my netbook. I know alot of people think i'm an idiot to get one but i already have a decent computer. So i use the netbook for internet and typing and i use the desktop for memory, storage and watching movies in my room when i fold laundry. Whatever. What was i talking about?<strong>

** RIGHT. In my original version of this story they all went by their civillian names: gar logan and richard greyson. But then i realized, wtf Robin would _never_ do that, especially when a potentially dangerous person could check out his background with just his name. And then i thought that maybe beast boy would get the same idea and raven might want to cover up that ridiculous sized ruby on her face. I've made alot of improvements from the first take when i was like thirteen and even from the second draft from a couple years ago (last week i turned nineteen by the way. to all of you who already know i'm canadian that means i can legally buy alcohol in BC, where i live!)**

** REVIEW!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Okay so here is the second chapter, hopefully its more exciting than the first.**

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><p>Teachers, as we all know, are suspicious bastards with large noses, perfect for sticking into business that is not their own. This may explain the heavy renovations the school went decades ago to have the girls and boys dormitories moved well across campus from each other. The main building is separated from the the long gravel entrance road by a courtyard and a fountain. On opposite ends of this courtyard lie the girls and boys dormitories. The field house was a relatively new addition, when compared to the rest of the place, build with donations made by wealthy benefactors when McAdams was still considered a decent school. It was fully outfitted with a gymnasium, a pool, underground storage and change rooms with mostly working showers. The field house and its companion football feild and stands were off to one back corner of the maintained school grounds, while the other was left with a smattering of trees.<p>

The whole place was a seasonal torture facility packed into a three story maze of founders portraits and solid oak banisters. Her cooking class was in the lowest floor (the brochures called it the first floor but the students called it the basement) and it was entirely tiled in black and white checkered flooring. It reminded her of Mad Mods capture attempt so much that she almost attacked the English Literature teacher with the British accent who told her to get to class.

"Miss Anders, no mustard!"

Starfire turned around at the sound of her teachers voice, still clutching the upside down mustard bottle in one hand.

"Miss Anders I have told you," Mrs. Brown sighed, exasperated, "to follow the instructions you are given. Mustard is used for hot dogs and hamburgers, _neither _of which we serve at this school. _Where did you even get _that?"

"But did you not say that after the flour was added we could add our own preference of substances?"

"Miss Anders that means your choice of chocolate chips or ... or nuts or raisins or cranberries - _typical cookie ingredients._" Mrs. Brown buried her hands deep into her short curly hair as her ulcer stirred to attention. She heaved an enormous tense sigh and swung around to face the back wall, then briskly walked through it into the small storage closet.

Starfire blinked at the mixing bowl in front of her. Her other 'kitchen members' were scattered around the classroom, flirting, gossiping and just altogether slacking. Starfire had taken the liberty to add a generous amount of mustard into her cookies because, if their absence was any indication, she didn't think they would be taking any cookies, much less care what was in them. She gazed at the yellow mustard glow shining off the sides of the bowl. She certainly wasn't going to let any of it go to waste so she slunk back over to the counter and set to work.

By the time the first batch of cookies was in the oven Mrs. Brown had returned from the storage closet in the back, oddly relaxed. The girls in number three kitchen hushed as she walked by, but the impression that was given was that it was not an irregular occurance.

"We use it to measure stress."

It was a girl who had spoken. With dark, straight hair and hazel eyes, she was nothing out of the ordinary. What made her stand out so much was the curving half-moon scar around the left side of her face.

"Pardons?"

"Stress. She goes in when she's stress and comes out ... not." The girl dipped a finger into the bowl of cookie dough but stopped when she saw the almost radioactive glow it emitted. "Depending on how fast she walks out of here, and how many times a day she does it, we figure out what bugs her the most."

Starfire cocked her head, trying to figure out what to say to a girl without a name. "I am Kori."

"With a K right?"

"Indeed." she nodded her head enthusiastically. Maybe this girl would befriend her.

"My name's Alex."

"Like the boy?" Starfire was very confused. Alex looked very much to be a girl. Perhaps she is and the parents that named her were not aware. But the technology on Earth - was it not advanced enough to determine the gender of the child even before birth?

"Well ... no. My name is Alexandra," she said, rolling her eyes, "but i get people to call me Alex."

"Wouldn't that get confusing?"

Alex(andra?) laughed. She could tell that Kori wasn't trying to be cruel, just curious, and that was what she liked most about the girl. "Think of it as a nickname. Don't you have any nicknames?"

She thought of the times Robin had softly called her Star. She started when she realized she was blushing and tried to cover it by checking in the oven. When she straightened up she saw there was no need, Alex had been sneaking dough from the neighboring kitchen while the cooks gossiped over the dishes. She had a sour face when she came back to her side.

"Raisins." she explained. "I _hate _raisins. It wouldn't be so bad if my brother didn't eat them in front of me every chance he gets."

"You have a brother?"

Alex looked displeased at this. "Yeah ... I do. Hey what about you though? Didn't you get here with four other kids? I saw you eating with them this morning." She leaned in. "You looked pretty comfortable with that cute guy with the black hair. So what's the story?"

Starfire was at a loss for words. The team had never discussed under what pretences they were to come into the school with. It seemed odd to do so since they had prepared for almost everything else. She regularly would not have minded this rather relaxedmethod of planning if she had not suddenly been faced with the most profound opportunity to screw it up. However she was saved by not just one, but two incidents. First, the oven went off and she almost dove into the oven in her haste to get her cookies. And next Mrs. Brown, her trip to the storage closet clearly wearing off, came thundering down the class, barking at anyone who was not in their own kitchen (and in two cases having to yell a few students back to their own classrooms). Alex quickly ducked behind a low cupboard and then scurried back to her own kitchen, swiping a fresh cookie on her way and winking back at Starfire..

As the remainder of class time quickly seeped away and the resident alien made a generous amount of mustard-oatmeal cookies, she started noticing small things. Like how Mrs. Brown had runs up and down her stockings, at least a quarter of the class had not shown up for class or had snuck out during, the lax enforcement of school rules (especially the dress code), the eclectic array of mismatched tables and chairs, or the daunting patch of black mold in one corner of the ceiling. The school seemed to be falling apart, the teachers at an even more alarming rate, but no one was concerned or worried.

When the bell rang and Starfire was the last student through the door she looked back and saw Mrs. Brown wrestling fiercly with a bottle of aspirin, a weary expression on her face. She couldn't help but wonder if all the teachers were ... strange like this.

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><p><strong>Ta da! i don't have much to say on this chapter except please ignore any and all mistakes i made. I don't have microsoft word, i just have notepad, and the spellcheck on the loading dock that uses is really weird and does alot of things the hard way. I have also been watching alot of television lately. For anyone who owns an internet connection go to and get started on Sons of Anarchy and Breaking In immidiately. You're welcome.<strong>

**you-neek**


	3. Chapter 3

**I refuse to apologize for not posting because i already warned you. So there.**

**McAdams chapter three:**

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><p>After three days of eating at McAdams the team had learned that mealtimes were a true stampede.<p>

The school, due to lack of proper funding, had to settle for cheap, bad quality food. It was because of this that any and all food products served at the cafeteria lost any taste or general deliciousness the more time passed after it had been cooked. If you wanted a decent meal you got there first. This was a principle shared by almost everyone who attended. Needless to say that the word _stampede_ was not a metaphor or exaggeration of any kind. In fact Cyborg swears by it that he saw some poor soul lose a tooth when he didn't keep pace with the crowd.

"Did you _see_ the tooth?"

"I said I did, didn't I?"

"Well it could have been something else white. You know... like a pearl."

"Would you stop that." Robin hissed at Beast Boy.

"What?" he was scratching his ear... his very long, very invisible ear. The ends of which didn't exist when he was using the holographic generator. He stopped and scowled at nothing, rubbing his ear between his scalp at his shoulder.

"Listen." Raven put her palms on the table. "They don't exactly like to talk about it but this school isn't what it used to be. It's the bottom rung on the educational ladder, and it's even worse than some of the public schools in the city."

Robin nodded along. "I did a broad search on student files when we were still camped out on the third floor. Most of the kids here either got kicked out of the other private schools or just barely qualify to be here. There are more than a few scholarship students here because it's one of the cheapest places to sent someone."

Cyborg lowered his voice and leaned over his empty plate. "I don't know about you guys but my teacher wasn't exactly golden-apple-award material."

"Indeed. The 'Mrs. Brown' went many times into a door at the back of the room when her stress level became unbearable. I found it most odd but I seemed to be the only person not used to this occurance."

"I honestly think my teacher was drinking from a flask for my entire class."

"Really?"

"Yes. He wasn't doing a very good job at hiding it."

"Dude, I _wish _that had happened to me. The lady that teaches me geography had an emotional breakdown in the middle of class. She started _bawling._"

"And no one did anything?"

"Not really ... I guess it's a regular thing cause everyone ignored her. It was really weird though. It's hard to work when your teacher's weeping over your shoulder."

"Now that we've seen this place, it makes sense for the Proffessor to have picked it. The students are delinquents."

"The teachers are worse."

"And the proffessor has picked himself to be the savior of school districts everywhere and clean the place up."

Robin huffed and watched a lone pea skitter off his plate. "This reminds me of when Two-Face first got started. I wasn't there for it but after he got burned he decided to go after the people he blamed for his transformation."

"Didn't he blame one of the big gangs? How did he pull that off and _not die?_"

"He didn't go after them directly, he robbed all the banks and underground clubs where the bookies worked. He went after their money supplies so they couldn't keep up business."

"What does that have to do with this situation? If it were the same the dean and the board of education would be getting attacked, not the students."

"I know that Harvey Dent and the professor don't seem similar ... "

Beast Boy leaned over to Raven. "Who's Harvey Dent?" he whispered, looking confused. "I thought we were talking about Two-Face."

"... he seems to go after whoever is making him angry instead of trying to solve problems. He's reckless and thats a dangerous thing for us to deal with. I just feel like we're missing something."

"How about we discuss this further where we aren't _surrounded by the entire student body?"_ Raven looked at him pointedly and stood to dispose of her tray.

They follwed her, shuffling off to converse in secret some more, trying to attract the least amount of attention. It was a hopeless pursuit, never had there been a more rag-tag group of teens to walk the halls.

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><p><strong>I realize i am defying my own set of rules by not posting more than a thousand words per chapter, but can't i have quality over quantity? Can't i?<strong>

**constantly late, **

**you-neek**


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